Standing Up to Einstein: Consciousness & the Meaning of Life
Consciousness is like the ultimate cosmic game, where you play the lead role in your own life story. Imagine waking up each day not just as a collection of cells but as a vibrant, thinking being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and the world around you. As philosopher René Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” This catchy mantra captures the essence of consciousness: your ability to ponder your existence is what makes you you. But the more you know (like the quantum theory explanation below), the better you are to interface with it.
Think of consciousness as your internal movie director, guiding the plot twists and character development of your life. It allows you to reflect on your choices, like deciding whether to binge-watch another season of your favorite show or finally tackle that novel you’ve been meaning to read. This self-reflection helps you understand your values, aspirations, and, ultimately, what gives your life meaning.
Engaging with the mysteries of consciousness invites us to ask big questions: Why are we here? What’s our purpose? Some theories suggest that simply seeing is an act of collapsing sextillions of wave functions, creating our own consciousness in the process. Einstein decried it, "I cannot believe the moon is not there when I am not looking at it." But the math works!
This notion implies YOU are shaping your own reality, collapsing an astronomical number of wave functions with each glance! Your eyesight becomes an extraordinary attribute of the universe—the very fabric of reality itself. It’s a bit like being in a philosophical escape room—you’re trying to unlock the secrets of existence. While the answers may be elusive, the journey of exploration adds layers of richness to our lives.
Is consciousness something we tap into, like putting our own canoe into the river of life? Or do we each have pieces of conciousness, like pieces of an incomplete puzzle? Or maybe some people are NOT conscious, they are bio-algorithms, walking around and being human, but without any over-arching thought matrix... We perceive animals have degrees of consciousness, therefore people could be a spectrum of it as well. Your best friend may not be conscious, they could be just a bunch of cells responding to physical stimuli and responding to life's questions like a Turing test; it's what we give AI and robots to see how they mimic human consciousness. It makes you wonder if George Carlin's rant on the number of stupid people you meet throughout a day has any valid conciousness behind them.
Concioussness has been called many things. Is it a product of the brain? Is it something we dream? What is it to the mind? But even though we can percieve it, measure it, and test it—it remains scientifically un-scientific. Through my search of mental illnesses, I routinely come up against psychologists, therapists, and psychaitrists, all backing down, retreating from squaring off with concioussness and saying, "we know nothing about consioussness."
In the end, consciousness is the spark that fuels our quest for meaning. It encourages us to seek knowledge, connect with others, and reflect on our unique stories. So, embrace your consciousness. You’re the star of this cosmic show. Whether it’s finding joy in simple moments or pondering the mysteries of the universe, your consciousness is what makes life an exhilarating adventure.
